Event will feature nine regional music acts, along with artists and other vendors

Jam bands and the acoustic/electric spirit of acts like the Grateful Dead, Phish and the Allman Brothers will be celebrated at the Hickories Park amphitheater in Owego on Saturday for the inaugural Grateful for the Dead Music and Arts Festival.

The Grateful for the Dead festival will feature nine regional acts sharing both original and cover tunes, along with artists and other vendors related to the event’s theme.

According to Binghamton actor and artist Russell Swanger (who bills himself as No Tuxedo’s "chief entertainment officer”), the idea for a jam-band festival was among those discussed when his company launched last year.

“I tried to pay attention based on what the community said they wanted and would support - musicians, vendors, artists and sponsors,” he said in an interview last week.

“Around Christmas, we had a lot of meetings with people from the community who have various abilities or interests that wanted to work on this. Then after the first of the year, many of us met again and we have people working on different parts of the whole project now.”

Voodoo Highway & Company will be among the performers Saturday at the Grateful For The Dead Music and Arts Festival.(Photo: Provided)

Local blues/rock band Voodoo Highway was among the first to sign on to Saturday’s lineup, and band members Dana Stewart and Bob Rynone helped to recruit other musicians they know in the region’s strong Americana rock scene. The lineup features Ship of Phools, Gerry Jarcia String Band, Andru Bemis, The Kitchen Sink Band and more

“They’re different kinds of acts who approach music from different perspectives with different instrumentation and different sizes of groups - acoustic, electric, a mix of both,” Stewart said. “Some are more bluegrass and some lean more toward rock. It’s going to be a really nice listening experience throughout the day with all kinds of sounds but all celebrating the similar core of jam music.”

Last October, an extended lineup labeled Voodoo Highway & Company (an homage to recent concerts by Dead & Company that include former Dead members Bob Weir, Mickey Hart and Bill Kreutzmann) re-created the setlist for the much-loved 1977 concert at the Broome County Veterans Memorial Arena.

Before that, though, Stewart admits that she and Rynone were only casual Deadheads familiar with just the band’s best-known songs.

“We fell in love with the Grateful Dead in the last two years, and we’re definitely making up for lost time,” she said.

As the first of No Tuxedo’s events planned for this year, the Grateful for the Dead festival has Swanger and others making preparations behind the scenes to ensure it will happen with the least number of possible glitches.

“I and many of the people who have volunteered their time to work on this are very excited to launch the very first music and arts festival in the very first season,” he said, “and so far everything is on track.”